Chamber
Meeting of the Parliament 18 March 2026 [Draft]
18 Mar 2026 · S6 · Meeting of the Parliament
Item of business
Portfolio Question Time
Roads in Lothian (Local Government Funding)
Road condition figures that were published this week confirm what every driver in the Lothians already knows: our roads are getting worse, not better. The reason is straightforward: this Government has squeezed council budgets so hard that roads spending has been cannibalised by statutory obligations.
Audit Scotland has said that the roads funding shortfall will nearly double to £458 million by the end of the decade. Does the cabinet secretary accept that that is a direct consequence of a funding settlement that forces councils to meet Scottish National Party priorities over basic services such as road and pavement repairs?
In the same item of business
3. Sue Webber (Lothian) (Con)
Con
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of any impact of its local government funding settlement on the condition of roads across the Loth...
The Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government (Shona Robison)
SNP
The vast majority of the funding that is available to councils is provided by means of a block grant from the Scottish Government. It is then the responsibil...
Sue Webber
Con
Road condition figures that were published this week confirm what every driver in the Lothians already knows: our roads are getting worse, not better. The re...
Shona Robison
SNP
Many of those joint priorities, whether on tackling child poverty or providing childcare, are important to the people of Scotland. Those are important priori...
The Deputy Presiding Officer (Annabelle Ewing)
SNP
I had requests from two members to ask supplementary questions, but now I have one. I point out to Fergus Ewing that the question relates to the impact of fu...
Fergus Ewing (Inverness and Nairn) (Ind)
Ind
Thank you very much indeed for that advice, Presiding Officer.Whether in Lothian, where the backlog is £69 million, in Highland, where it is £233 million, or...
The Deputy Presiding Officer (Annabelle Ewing)
SNP
I ask the cabinet secretary to respond on matters relating to the question at hand.
Shona Robison
SNP
We have provided record resources to local government, whether in rural areas or urban areas, and it is up to local authorities to determine their priorities...